DRUM TUNING APP SCREEN SHOWCASE

AUTOMATIC TUNING INTERVAL

Tune your drums to melodic notes for a balanced overall drum kit
sound that is in harmony with the other instruments of your band.
Drumtune PRO 2.0 automatically calculates the target fundamental
tones of your drum kit, following an interval of your choice.
This new feature will save you a lot of time experimenting with different tunings to get a great overall drum kit sound!

REFERENCE DRUM

Select any drum as reference drum for the interval and see real time effect. If it sounds complicated, just play with the app to get
the hang of it! It’s made easy, really.

CUSTOMIZE INTERVALS

Edit/modify any interval between any two individual drums of the
same drumkit to craft the sound you like! To achieve an optimal
melodic effect, tune all toms of your kit to the same tonal interval.
Tune like a PRO. Sound like a PRO. Whenever. Wherever.

Learn More button will take you to the single portfolio page and Link will take you the demo link of the portfolio.

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ORGANIZE YOUR TUNING PRESETS

Create as many custom drum tuning presets as you like, modify
or delete them and arrange their order. Store them as separate
drums in ‘MY DRUMS’ or group your drums into a drum kit and
store them in ‘MY KITS’.

If you own more than one drum kit, or if you have different drum
tuning settings regarding the style you play, just store separate
tuning presets in the list.

Organize your drums the way you like it best! This list is a great tool
to store and access your arsenal of drum tuning presets.

EASY TO USE

Set the switch to ‘CENTER’ to detect the fundamental tone of your
drum. Set the switch to ‘EDGE’ to detect the lug pitch of your drum.
Press ‘LOCK Lug Focus’ to eliminate interference of unwanted higher order overtones, while clearing your drumhead.

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SCAN AMBIENT NOISE LEVELS

Drumtune PRO 2.0 will automatically scan the noise level and display it on a scale.

Just slide the slider to a position above the maximum noise peak
level to ensure that your drum hits will be detected with minimal
interference from ambient sounds.

Convenient!

DETECT DRUM PITCHES IN LOUD ENVIRONMENTS

Although it’s recommended to tune your drum in a more quiet
environment, with the sensitivity switch put to GIG, you can tune
your drum when your fellow band members are playing their
instruments or perhaps even when they are rehearsing their licks
meanwhile.

VIEW DRUM HEAD SPECS

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WATCH DRUM TUNING INSTRUCTION VIDEOS

Drumtune PRO 1.0 has e few interesting drum tuning videos available that show the drum tuner app in action!

The section will soon be expanded with drum tuning videos of
version 2.0. You’ll find out that the tuning flow has been much improved and that from version 2.0 and up, a unique and innovative
‘lug focus mode’ has been added to deal with unwanted interference from higher order overtones.

Browse the list with instruction videos or reviews to watch in your
browser!

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LUG PITCH DRUM TUNER

With the switch set to ‘EDGE’ Drumtune PRO 2.0 lets you fine-tune
your drum lugs pitch-perfect for that finishing touch!

Scan your lugs & Keep visual track of all lug pitch differences while
tuning your drums. Observe which bolts have to be tuned up or
down and match lug pitches to obtain equal overtones along the
bearing edge of your drum.

BUILT-IN TUNING PATTERN INDICATION

Lug tuner mode automatically assists you with tuning your lugs in
the correct order and pattern, pretty cool!

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LEARN ABOUT DRUM TUNING INTERVALS

To learn more about an interval, and hear how it sounds on the piano, just tap an interval name in the list of a list of common tuning
intervals.

Like a color-range, an interval can bear an emotional connotation.
Minor intervals tend to sound more ‘sad, tired, negative and dark’.
Major intervals sound more ‘happy, energetic, positive and bright’.

INTERVAL TUNING

You can tune your drums to any frequencies you like! There are no
rules here!

If you wish to tune your kit to specific intervals, we made this tool
for you to help you tailor your signature kit sound.

Tuning your drums to certain intervals can contribute to make your
sound melodic. Many pros do alike to match melody and playing
style! Advanced tuners may even choose an interval in tune with
the key of a song, to produce a balanced sound in the mix that is in
harmony with the emotional style of a song!

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DOWNLOAD FREE EXPANSION PACKS

Subscribe to the drummer community and download free drum head and sound control expansion packs (Slapklatz, KickPort,
Aquarian, Evans and Remo) with batter and resonant drum heads,
and sound control items neatly sorted per drum type and brand.

Once subscribed via mail or via Facebook you are signed-in into
the Drummer Community automatically!

Now you can download all packs for free, via the download section
in the even more screen. (Internet connection required.)

We’ll do our best to update the packs regularly and notify you of
updates, via push messages.

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FREQUENCY CHART

The true corresponding Hz value of each chromatic note, sorted
per octave is displayed in the frequency chart.

Elsewhere in Drumtune PRO, we chose to refer to note frequencies, with their nearest frequency value within a 0.5 Hz step.
This way it’s easier to tune your drums, because even when tun-ing a perfectly constructed, high end drum and professional drum
heads, it’s nearly impossible to tune all tension bolts of a drum to
pitch, with a perfection of smaller than 0.5 Hz and keep it there
over time.

Note (no pun intended) that the higher the lug tone of the drum, the
less audible a pitch difference of < 0.5 Hz becomes to the human ear...

CHECK ON NOTES

To hear how a note sounds when played on a piano, simply tap on
the play button next to each note. It’s like asking your pal at the piano to hit a key. Compare the sound of your drum with the sound
sample to check if the sustain is well cleared

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BUILT-IN DRUM TUNING PATTERNS

However, following certain star shaped tuning patterns provides
a good approach to get efficient results when clearing your drum
heads or when seating a drum head on the shell’s bearing edge.

CHOOSE TUNING PATTERN

Check a list of drum tuning patterns for different lug amounts as
drum tuning guidance.

Select a drum tuning pattern that corresponds with your amount
of lugs to see an animation of a star shaped sequence that indicates the order in which the tensioning bolts of your drum should
be tuned to efficiently achieve a uniform tensioning of the drum
head.

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FINE TUNE YOUR SETTINGS

Create your ‘signature drum sound’. Express your individual style!

Tailor your sound to suit your personal recording and gig needs!

Define fundamental drum tone and sustain. Find out head pitch
and sustain to create your own voice. Tune your drum drum to
enhance pitch bend and more… Drumtune PRO 2.0 will help you to
find out how to tune your drums with the aid of the drum tuning
preset! Load the preset in the tuner and tune worry free.

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CHOOSE DRUM BRAND

To further customize your drum tuning preset, we added a selection of common drum brands, and their product range, you can
chose from.

This list is far from complete, but if you like to see a brand or series
to be included in the list, we welcome you to inform us about it and
we’ll do our best to include it in a future update... It would be great

For now its a limited selection, but with the help of the Drummer Community and our user base, we hope to further extend it!
Just reach out if something is missing. Thanks!

FINE TUNE IN SMALL STEPS

Fine-tune in small increments, working around the drum head.
Once done fine-tuning a single lug, tap on the display and the virtual drum key automatically points out which lug to fine-tune next.
Use lug tuner mode to clear your drum head, when all your lugs
are within +/- 4 Hz of your target lug pitch.

‘Lock on a target tone’ after you have detected a suitable lug pitch,
in order to clear your drum head without the interference from unwanted higher overtones. Release the target tone, to check on the
fundamental tone of your drum or to start tuning another drum.

PRESET DRUM TUNER MODE

The preset drum tuner mode loads a stored tuning preset for
tuning. The preset drum tuner loads a fundamental and target lug
pitches per head as tuning reference!

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ACCESS USER PROFILE

Signing in is optional. Drumtune PRO 2.0 comes fully functional
directly from the App Store. To be able to install our free expansion
packs, you must join the drummer community by signing up with
Facebook or per email.

Once you signed up, you’ll be a member of the drummer community and have access all expansion packs and receive your personal
account. To access your personal account and update your account
details, or your profile picture, press the tab at the top of the Even
More screen. Here you can edit your personal data.

CREATE BACK-UPS / RESTORE TUNING PRESETS

When you are signed-in, all your personal settings, updates, kits,
tuning presets, downloaded expansion packs and so on, can be
backed-up for free in the cloud when you press the back-up button. Once backed-up, you can always restore your data from our
drummer community cloud.

Whenever you change device, or use someone else’s device, simply
log-in and all your data will be accessible via your new device!
You will always be able to access your stored tuning presets!

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About Us

Simply put, we love drumming!

Made by Drummers, for Drummers

Being drummers ourselves, we built Drumtune PRO Drum Tuner App for iOS with you, our fellow drummers in mind to provide a tuning tool that is fast, fun, and easy to use.

Made with Love

We get our thrills developing products that you will be glad to have. Our products are engineered to perform!

We focus on creating well thought-out products that make a drummer’s life more efficient and productive.

Made to Last

As a small (ad)venture, we have more ideas than bucks and we develop products when we have time and means available.

Now containing cymlok® and Drumtune PRO®, our EXA® product range is born out of passion and ever growing.

THROW US A STICK

Any questions or improvement suggestions? Wanna get a bug solved? Need support?

Great! Your input and feedback is vital to us! Fill out the form below and we’ll do the rest.

NEED SUPPORT?

Check if the information below gets you going in case of trouble.

If not, in Drumtune PRO 2.0 just shake your device to open the built-in reporting tool and contact us. You can also write us in a PM over FB or via support@drumtunepro.com. We’ll get back to you!

Drumtune PRO | Drum Tuner MANUAL 2.0

Get your drum tuner manual below.

Manuals are available as .pdf. Read it in your browser, or store it on your device.

Tuner Specifications

You just wanna get this drum tuning app and experience it for yourself, really…

ABOUT US

Frankly, while we know what sound we're after, we suck at clearing pitches by ear!

Tuning by ear, it took us ages to perfectly clear our drumheads and consistently retuning our drums always has been an adventure, never being sure if we could retrieve our sound!

We sucked at clearing pitches that much, that we decided to develop a drum tuning tool that would help us to get rid of the guesswork involved with tuning drums by ear! So, we developed Drumtune PRO a drum tuner app that we could always carry with us on our smartphones and that we could trust better than our own ears!

It simplified our drummer's life and we hope it will simplify yours too! We're happy to share this advanced drum tuning tool with you, because being drummers ourselves, we built Drumtune PRO 2.0 | Drum Tuner for iOS & Android with you, our fellow drummers in mind.

Give Drumtyne PRO a try to maximize your sound consistently and with ease! It is fast, fun and easy to use.

FAQ

FAQ

While tuning it can happen that higher order overtones in the drum sound disturb your pitch readings.

This usually happens when these higher order overtones interfere with the lug pitch frequency you wish to detect.

Activating the ‘FOCUS MODE’ once a lug pitch is successfully detected, can avoid this from happening, for the hits to follow. With the focus mode activated, any interference of higher order overtones is prevented and your readings will be back to normal.

Note:

When it’s difficult to get a correct lug pitch reading, it can be useful to perform following tuning technique:

Simply place your finger or a cymbal washer on the drumhead, at approx. 5 cm or 2” from the bearing edge and at 90° from the impact location of the stick. (EG. If you hit the drum near a lug located at 12 O’Clock (or North), then place the cymbal washer or your finger at 90° left or right, thus at 3 O'clock (or East) or at 9 O'clock (or West).)

This technique will mute higher order overtones for that lug enough to ensure they won’t interfere with the readings anymore and it will provide you a perfect lug pitch reading.

While tuning it can happen that higher order overtones in the drum sound disturb your pitch readings.

While tuning it can happen that higher order overtones in the drum sound disturb your pitch readings.

Activating the ‘FOCUS MODE’ once a lug pitch is successfully detected, can avoid this from happening, for the hits to follow. With the focus mode activated, any interference of higher order overtones is prevented and your readings will be back to normal.

Note:

When it’s difficult to get a correct lug pitch reading, it can be useful to perform following tuning technique:

Simply place your finger or a cymbal washer on the drumhead, at approx. 5 cm or 2” from the bearing edge and at 90° from the impact location of the stick. (EG. If you hit the drum near a lug located at 12 O’Clock (or North), then place the cymbal washer or your finger at 90° left or right, thus at 3 O'clock (or East) or at 9 O'clock (or West).)

This technique will mute higher order overtones for that lug enough to ensure they won’t interfere with the readings anymore and it will provide you a perfect lug pitch reading.

Based upon your location and the availability, all items available for purchase are shown in the shop, neatly ordered in categories.

Shop till you drop and add any items you wish to purchase to your cart and proceed to checkout.

Just like with any other on-line shop, you’ll have to provide us with your address and shipment details. Shipping cost will be updated and is included in the price shown on your bill. Credit cards and Paypal are accepted as payment means.

We’ll ship the items to you, as soon as your payment is received.

After payment, you’ll receive an order confirmation, an invoice and tracking number(s) of your parcel(s) per mail. Once your order is placed and payed, you can track its shipment status from within the app too.

Your order history is kept in your profile so you can always consult it later on and print/mail invoices if needed.

Yes. The ambient setting allows you to adapt the sensitivity of the microphone so drum hits can be detected without interference from any environment sounds.

Of course it’s always best to tune in a more silent environment, to ensure proper pitch readings, but Drumtune PRO has been designed to still detect drum pitches in noisy environments...

Just set the sensitivity switch to a setting above the indicated max sound level in the real-time noise tracking graph. A setting just above ambient noise level will allow you to detect (gentle) hits on your drum head, without any false hit detections coming from events in the ambient sound.

If you did find a bug, then it’s largely valued if you contact support and let us know what’s wrong.

To report a bug, please shake your device. This will open our built-in bug reporter. Now, you can easily send us a mail with a screen shot and little description of the bug, so we can understand it better, to solve it better. We will contact you after your report is received.

Alternatively, it’s possible to go to the ‘Even More’ screen, and write us an email from within the contact support section. You can also drop us a line on our FB-page, via private messaging.

We do our best to follow-up as fast as possible. Your feedback, positive or negative, is useful to us and much appreciated!

We wish to solve any discovered bugs, in order to improve your app and make sure that you have the best possible experience with Drumtune PRO.

Once you're signed-up to the app, you are a member of the drummer community.

As a member you can expand the functionality of Drumtune PRO with free expansion packs.
Simply download the free expansion packs, enjoy free backup of your personal tuning presets and settings. Later on we’ll expand functionality to share tuning presets with other members and you’ll be able to benefit from member-only deals in our drummer-community shop.

Yes, besides instruction videos, tutorials and a FAQ/troubleshooting library, we have an extended manual. The manual is in English only.

You can access the manual from within Drumtune PRO from our ‘Even more’ screen here.

Note:

When you access the manual for the very first time you need to have an internet connection on your mobile device in order to download it first. Once downloaded it is stored on your device, so you can always access it later on, even when you're not connected to the web. If an update is available it will automatically redownload if a web-connection is present.

Alternatively you can:

Send an email here to get a .pdf copy of the manual it mailed to you.

Download the manual directly from our server

You can access these tutorials or videos from within Drumtune PRO from our ‘Even more’ screen here.

Yes, besides a FAQ/troubleshooting library and an extended manual, we’ll make instructional videos and tutorials available over time... Currently there also are third party videos or videos from earlier releases of the app available.

You can access these tutorials or videos from within Drumtune PRO from our ‘Even more’ screen here.

Note:

To be able to see these tutorials or videos you need to have an active internet connection on your mobile device.

Personal account

Signing in is optional. Drumtune PRO comes fully functional from the App Store.

To be able to install our free expansion packs, you must join the drummer community. We won’t spam you!

Sign-up to join a worldwide drummer community and receive a lot of extra content for FREE, made available from the drummer community cloud.

Once you signed up, you’ll be a member of the drummer community and have access to your personal account.

To access your personal account and update your account details, or your profile picture, press the tab at the top of the list.

If you have an account, you can sign-in and have access to all benefits the drummer community cloud, but of course you can also logout from it without loosing any installed functionality of the app.

Sign-in

When you are signed-in to the drummer community of Drumtune PRO, all your personal settings, updates, kits, tuning presets, purchases and so on, will be saved automatically so you can always restore your data from our drummer community cloud. Whenever you change device, use someone else’s device even if you switch from an iOS to an Android device, simply log-in and all your data will be accessible via your new device!
It’s a worry-free back-up!

As a signed-in member of the drummer community, you’ll receive free access to a range of expansion packs, member exclusive offers, etc… It’s not only worry-free, it’s free!

Sign-in happens automatically when you use Drumtune PRO, once you’re signed-up.

To be able to make purchases from our shop (and enjoy from our member-only deals), you need to be a member of the drummer community and signed-in.

You can logout whenever you like.

Log-out

When you’re signed out, then no connection is made with the drummer community cloud. When not connected with the drummer community cloud neither backup of personal settings and tuning presets, nor downloads of expansion packs, or updates to them, would be available.

To get the look and feel right when tuning your drum, pick the drum heads & sound control item that are mounted on your drum.

By default there’s a limited collection of drum heads, and sound control items visualized in Drumtune PRO.

You have to install the expansion packs to get a full fledged library of drum heads and sound controls.

The free expansion packs contain (whenever possible) the full range of sound control accessories and drum heads available from the most significant drum head manufacturers, all neatly arranged per brand and sorted per drum type. We update the packs on regular basis.

The free expansion packs are available to members of the drummer community only.
Sign-up to join the drummer community and get to download the FREE expansion packs full of sound control items, sorted per brand. Once the expansion packs are installed, you’ll have access to the manufacturer's full product range. (Updated regularly.)

To obtain a all-round contact between the drum head and the bearing edge of your drum when installing a drum head, place the head well centered on the drum’s bearing edge and rotate it a couple of times until you feel that the contact with the bearing edge is good and the flesh hoop of the drum head is level with the bearing edge of the drum.

Next install the counter hoop or rim on the drum head and ensure that it is properly centered with the drum’s shell. Make sure that the counter hoop and the head remain level to the bearing edge.

Now it’s best to finger tighten the lugs carefully, before using a drum key.

Start finger tightening the tensioning bolts per pair of opposing bolts, to ease keeping drum head level and well-centered in place on the drum. Keep on following the advised sequence of the tuning pattern for your drum, even when working per lug-pair.

During this finger tightening step, make sure that both counter hoop and drum head remain level and centered with the bearing edge during the process. Make corrections if not level or not centered.

When the head is sufficiently tightened it will just become responsive and start to sing. Now give the tensioning bolts another ½ with 1 or two drum keys, in the order of the pattern as indicated.

When the head is sufficiently tightened it will just become responsive and just start to sing a tad bit. Around this time the wrinkles should start to disappear from the head.

Look at the light reflection on the head. Once all wrinkles are disappeared, the drum head is at the right tension to push it with your first or the palm of your hands downwards, a couple of times (like CPR). This pushing will ensure that the heads get better centered and that the contact with the bearing edge is established uniformly.

Finger tighten again and repeat if required.Once, the above steps are completed to satisfaction, the head will be properly seated.

Now you can start tuning your drum head, using a drum key.

You also use two drum keys simultaneously, each on opposing lugs, nonetheless when seating a drum head on a drum with two keys at once, it’s important to still follow the correct tuning pattern, regardless if you use one or two drum keys.

If you are within +/- 4 Hz from your target pitch, you could switch to the ‘lug tuner’ to fine-tune and clear all lugs to perfection!

To ensure proper seating during tuning, it helps to press the center of the drum head with your fist or palm of the hand.

Push the head vertically downward, release and tighten the bolts following the cross pattern again. This will redistribute the tension over the head and contribute to an even tensioning of the head. Make sure that both counter hoop and drum head remain level and centered with the bearing edge during the tuning process. Make corrections if not level or not centered.
Repeat the above steps until the head is properly tuned

Pressing ensures that the bearing edge contact is uniform, resulting in an even tension distribution over the head.

It also helps to ensure that the tuning is less prone to variations after playing a while, and so could be kept longer.

Note:

Never mind any possible cracking sounds coming from your drumhead when seating new heads. The cracking is caused by the glue inside the heads’ flesh hoop, which is adjusting itself to the tension changes of the head.

It basically indicates that the drum head is seating itself on the bearing edge of your drum.

When all lugs on a drum head are tuned to the same lug tone, nearby the lugs the head vibrates at the same speed when struck in the center. This produces a uniform range of overtones around the full circumference of the head.

In other words, if all lugs are cleared, your drum produces a more defined sound with a clear timbre. A well-cleared drum head has a more a prominent fundamental tone and fewer overtones in its sound palette. This gives a well defined ton and a smooth, harmonious overall sound.

The benefits are best audible during the decay of the sustain. It’s great for miking, recording and it is easier on the ears of your audience, as it sounds more melodic and leaves more ‘room’ in your drum sound for the other members of the band.

Once you have a complete overview of their differences, select the lug with the biggest positive difference (+) by pressing the next button until it reaches this lug, or by tapping on it directly, and tune it down in a small step (⅛ to ¼ turns of the drum key).

Next, select the lug with the biggest negative difference (-) by pressing the next button until it reaches this lug, or by tapping on it directly, and tune it up in a small step ( ⅛ to ¼ turns of the drum key).

Press the center of the head with your fist a couple of times. This will redistribute
Next, recheck all pitches and repeat until all lugs are cleared.

Note:

Try not to tune any individual bolt in steps bigger than 2Hz, before checking all other lug pitches again.

If you tune the pitch of a single tensioning bolt up, all pitches of the other bolts will go up too, as the tension increase redistributes over the whole head.

If you tune the pitch of a single tensioning bolt down, all pîtches of the other bolts will go down too, as the tension decrease redistributes over the whole head.

Flanking tensioning bolts and opposing tensioning bolts are most affected by the changes.

Thetimbreof a drum sound refers to the overall sound pallette, corresponding with the fundamental tone and the relative proportions of all overtones of a drum.

Note:

The timbre is reflecting the ‘color of a sound’. A difference in timbre allows us to recognize different instruments playing the same notes.

For example a D played on a piano sounds different to a D played on a trumpet or the same D played on a guitar or drum.This is due to the fact that for different instruments, the same fundamentals are completed with proportionally different overtones. The different constructions and materials of the instruments simply cause to generate proportionally different overtones, or a different timbre, when played at the same pitch.

Imagine the exact same song played on both, an acoustic guitar, and on an electric guitar.
Despite of the fact the exact same notes would have been played on both guitars, wouldn’t both songs sound much different?

Both guitars have a completely different timbre, aka acoustic ‘color’ or ‘feel’. This means that both songs are ‘colored’ differently, by the difference in timbre or overtones that is generated by both different instruments, causing the exact same songs to have a completely different ‘feel’. Our ears & brains are very good at perceiving these differences in timbre!

While different heads may be tuned to the same pitch, or fundamental tone, they will all have a different sound color or acoustic feel, despite of being perfectly tuned to the exact same fundamental tone.

The materials used, and how the head is constructed, affect all aspects of the drum head’s sound.

These differences in materials used and the overall head’s construction, affect the attack, the sustain duration and timbre of the drum head simultaneously....

So, different head types will display timbre differences, meanwhile also featuring different audibilities of the attack and also the drum heads’ sustain at any given tuning.

The proportional differences of the present overtones in the timbre are affected by both ply thickness, material mass, stiffness etc.

To be able to choose well, it’s important to check the drum heads manufacturer’s sound description and guidelines; but in general these underlying rules of physics apply;

The heavier a head’s ply, the darker its timbre.

The more plies in a head, the darker and drier its timbre, with more effect on sustain decay duration.

The thinner and lighter a head the more easily it generates overtones and the higher, ‘brighter and wetter’ its timbre / sound palette, but the harder it is to properly clear it so it sings ‘in tune’ with itself.

The thicker and heavier a head the less easily it generates overtones and the lower, ‘darker and dryer’ its timbre / sound palette, and the easier it is to properly clear it so it sings ‘in tune’ with itself.

A center dot, generates a drier, lower fundamental and a more focused attack.

Rings near the bearing edge, generates a drier timbre, with less effect on sustain decay duration.

The surface finish of the head affects the timbre and sustain as well. Coated heads and rougher heads (frosted, satin, fiberskyn) are dryer and have a slightly shorter sustain. Clear heads and shiny polished heads are wetter and have a longer sustain.

Professional heads can be tuned properly to a great sound, cheap entry-level drum heads generally still sound really bad even when tuned properly.

A worn-out, spent drum head will always sound dull, with very few overtones and a reduced sustain...

When installing quality heads, it’s best to adapt the head thickness of your batter head and resonant head to your playing style.

Thin heads as resonant heads, create a drum with a sustain that is responsive and well audible when playing on low volumes.

Thicker heads as resonant heads, may well function if you like a very dry sound, but generally create a sustain that is not so responsive and less audible when playing on low volumes. In higher volume situations, they may work well.

Thinner batter heads can sound ‘full bodied’, when played at low volume and can sound ‘thin’, when played at higher volume.

Thicker batter heads sound can sound ‘tubby’, when played at lower volumes and can.

Finally, it’s also important to to adapt the head thickness to your tuning style, or vice versa.

Tuning any heads too high in tension, would ‘choke’ the drum sound. Thicker heads, are less easily choked on higher tunings, and the other way round for thinner heads.

Tuning any heads too low in tension, would ‘deaden’ the drum sound. Thinner heads are less easily deadened on lower tunings, and the other way round for thicker heads.

Ensure your drum is tuned well… :)

If none of these help, changing the drum or redoing the bearing edges would be a way to go!

The batter head and resonant head don’t have to be tuned to the same lug tone.

Tuning both drum heads to a different lug tone enables you to change the drum’s sustain, attack, and pitch bend up to your personal taste!

To find your signature sound, just experiment with the lug tones of both heads!

Keep the following rules of thumb in mind:

the bigger the distance between the lug tones of both drum heads, the shorter the sustain of your drum.

if the batter head is tuned higher than the resonant head, there will be more attack in the sound, and often a upward pitch bend in the decay of the sustain of the drum. Note that the attack is higher pitched due to the higher batter head tension, so right after the attack there will be a downward pitch bend, but it rises in the sustain. Also there’s a faster stick response and rebound, and it’s easier to hear the definition and articulation of fast, complex fills.

if the resonant head is tuned higher than the batter head, there will be less attack in the sound and often an downward pitch bend. There’s a less defined stick response and slower bounce-back, and you’ll have a more centered, rounded sound.

Note:

The bigger the tonal difference between both heads, the stronger these effects will be.

Unlike with a guitar, where a standardized EADGBE-note tuning for the strings applies for most situations, with drums it’s not required to tune the different drums of your kit to specific standardized notes.

You’re free to choose any notes you like

It’s always a good choice to tune your drum to chromatic notes when you play with other melodic instruments in a band. This will ensure that your fundamental tone is in tune with the other instruments. However, since a drum produces an almost infinite amount of pitches in its timbre (overtone palette), it can never really sound 100% out of tune with other instruments, when properly cleared.

Therefore, it even ain’t required to tune your drum to a note on the chromatic scale at all!

You could well choose any frequency between the notes on a chromatic scale to tune your drums to.

And if you do so, it is possible to tune the different drums to a specific interval, by respecting the frequency ratios of the interval.

Whether to tune your drums to an interval or not, is a personal choice.

Toms (& possibly kick)

You may find it useful to tune all fundamental tones of your drums to match chromatic notes.

This would result in a melodic drum kit sound, with well balanced tones which are in harmony with the other instruments of your band.

To achieve an optimal melodic effect, you may want to tune all toms of your kit to the same tonal interval.

When playing fills on the kit, from the smaller tom(s) over the bigger tom(s) and the floor tom(s) to the kick, a tuning in the same intervals will generate a sound with a perfectly balanced gradual shift in pitch.

Snare drum

Snare drums are tuned usually higher

You may want to tune the snare drum (and if desired also the kick) to a different interval distance to suit your style.

A handy trick may be to tune your snare to an interval of the kick drum tone, but in another octave. Since you play both the kick and the snare often, they would sound great together.

A perfectly tuned kit with a killer sound in your rehearsal room, may very well sound awkward when you take it to the bar for your gig, or the studio for a recording.

Always try to tune your drum kit so it sounds good in the environment you want to play it in. Hereto it’s best to tune your drum inside the room, at the spot where you’ll be playing. Try to “feel” with your ears, how to meet the environments requirements.

The more experience and skill you have, the easier it gets. But hey, we all start from the beginning. So don’t be afraid to play with the relative tensions of both heads, and the pitch of the fundamental until all sounds right! If you can’t find the right tone, it’s always possible to load your previous tuning preset and go back to your original tuning.

Sound perception changes from day to day, not only are acoustics depending of the materials present in a room and of its geometry; they are also depending of the ambient temperature and humidity too…

Retune if required.

Sometimes, if required, it’s also possible to change the sound color of the environment by changing the objects and materials inside a room by using a huge drum carpet for example.

Also the placement of your kit is critical, with regards to sound reflections and their effect on the perceived timbre. (In a corner / before a window/ on a wooden stage)

TROUBLESHOOTING

While tuning it can happen that higher order overtones in the drum sound disturb your pitch readings.

This usually happens when these higher order overtones interfere with the lug pitch frequency you wish to detect.

Activating the ‘FOCUS MODE’ once a lug pitch is successfully detected, can avoid this from happening, for the hits to follow. With the focus mode activated, any interference of higher order overtones is prevented and your readings will be back to normal.

Note:

When it’s difficult to get a correct lug pitch reading, it can be useful to perform following tuning technique:

Simply place your finger or a cymbal washer on the drumhead, at approx. 5 cm or 2” from the bearing edge and at 90° from the impact location of the stick. (EG. If you hit the drum near a lug located at 12 O’Clock (or North), then place the cymbal washer or your finger at 90° left or right, thus at 3 O'clock (or East) or at 9 O'clock (or West).)

This technique will mute higher order overtones for that lug enough to ensure they won’t interfere with the readings anymore and it will provide you a perfect lug pitch reading.

If not solved, delete and reinstall the app from the App Store. (Click ’Allow microphone access’ when asked for when opening the app.)

If not solved, then most probably you did find a bug!

It’s largely valued if you contact support and let us know what’s wrong, so we can solve it for you.

To report a bug, please shake your device. This will open our built-in bug reporter. Now, you can easily send us a mail with a screenshot and little description of the bug, so we can understand it better, to solve it better. We will contact you after your report is received.

Alternatively, it’s possible to go to the ‘Even More’ screen, and write us an email from within the contact support section. You can also drop us a line on our FB-page, via private messaging.

We do our best to follow-up as fast as possible. Your feedback, positive or negative, is useful to us and much appreciated!

We wish to solve any discovered bugs, in order to improve your app and make sure that you have the best possible experience with Drumtune PRO.

If not solved, delete and reinstall the app from the App Store. (Click ’Allow microphone access’ when asked for when opening the app.)

If not solved, then most probably you did find a bug!

It’s largely valued if you contact support and let us know what’s wrong, so we can solve it for you.

To report a bug, please shake your device. This will open our built-in bug reporter. Now, you can easily send us a mail with a screenshot and little description of the bug, so we can understand it better, to solve it better. We will contact you after your report is received.

Alternatively, it’s possible to go to the ‘Even More’ screen, and write us an email from within the contact support section. You can also drop us a line on our FB-page, via private messaging.

We do our best to follow-up as fast as possible. Your feedback, positive or negative, is useful to us and much appreciated!

We wish to solve any discovered bugs, in order to improve your app and make sure that you have the best possible experience with Drumtune PRO.